Thursday, September 5, 2013

From Finland to Fairport, Part 3

As I explained in Part 1 of this series of blog posts, the Finnish Heritage Museum in Fairport Harbor, Lake County, Ohio, is preparing a Memory Book to accompany the Spirit of Finland sculpture being dedicated this month on September 15. The sculpture commemorates all Finnish immigrants to the USA. For the museum's Memory Book I wrote about my own ancestors who immigrated from Finland. Because the infomation is so dense, I'm presenting my Memory Book essay in several parts on this blog.

Matti Uhmusberg (7/8/1857-5/22/1915) was born in Palo, Isokyro, Finland. On 11/11/1880 he married Liisa Kristiina Herttua (1/1/1861-1/22/1943), who was born in Ylistaro, Vasan Laani, Finland. They took the last name Hietanen evidently from a cottage where they lived on the Renko farm of Matti’s sister Maria and her husband Jaakko Aittanen. Matti arrived in the USA on 6/16/1887. Liisa and her sons Matti Jr. (5/29/1883-10/28/1921) and Edward Miikaeli followed later, sailing in steerage on the ship Aller and arriving in the USA on 7/5/1890. The family settled in Fairport, where Matti Sr. and Liisa helped found Suomi Zion Lutheran Church. Matti Sr. worked on the P. & L. E. docks. He was naturalized 3/22/1899. Matti Sr. and Liisa are buried in the Northeast Leroy Cemetery, Leroy, Ohio.